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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  6. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  7. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. bat — the animal
  3. dip — to dunk
  4. race — a contest
  5. dip — to sink
  6. pound — a weight
  7. race — the arms race
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. root — of a word
  12. clip — a video
  13. root — of a plant
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. kid — child
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. kid — to tease
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. wound — an injury
  20. root — the cause
  21. clip — for paper
  22. dip — a sauce
  23. wound — an injury
  24. race — humankind

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com